Part of why I opted for German Renaissance over Dutch Baroque...

Honest mistake... #NewberryLibrary (Inc. 2772)

This glass was out all night and is somehow still almost half full...

Books as academic origin stories? The pop-up Pope/Devil badly reproduced in this classic might have had something to do with my need to track down the original in Munich...

ZEE Sir Godfrey Thornrose branches out... #OFMD #phrenology #posterior @museumbums.bsky.social

Wrote, edited and copyedited "Printing on Fabric" NL exhibition catalogue with 29 co-authors. Out in print and open access next fall! Co-organized St. Louis Movable Book Society conference! Made it to Turin to speak at their popup book museum after two failed attempts (first during the Pandemic)!

What day is it again? #NotALion #Caturday

Make a Bond movie academic Dr. Know

Just finished the 1000 piece puzzle on the left with significant help but only after MUCH consternation, and am tempted to stick to historical puzzles under 50 pieces for the rest of the year! 🧩

And a very Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

Cards FOR Humanity! My colleagues added a card to the collection that may have saved lives in WWII! Underneath the Queen Consort is part of a map of Southern Germany, which British and Canadian seamen may have used to escape a POW camp! #NewberryLibrary #newacq December 24 (24/24) #AdventCalendar

Volvelles!

Cards AGAINST Humanity The Newberry has a collection of base sets and expansions of CAH, a Chicago-based card game that's mainly NSFW. While a co-founder proved to be a terrible person, what did we expect from a game billed as "a party game for horrible people"? December 23 (23/24) #AdventCalendar

Seriously. Who's @theonion.com art historian? 💯

Was looking for Juan de Pareja's paintings for my undergrad thesis. One was in a Spanish museum under renovation. My boyfriend (now spouse) and I squeezed into a tiny elevator with a caretaker with a hacksaw. What's that? Maniacal laughter... Then he hacked off a padlock so I could see the painting!

Games of Cats & Mice! Triple the fun in a c. 1877 blook gamebox from McLoughlin Bros, NY! #NewberryLibrary (Wing oversize ZP 883 .M2285) December 22 (22/24) #AdventCalendar

Chip off the Old Block Puzzle from the Bielo Materializing the Bible Collection #NewberryLibrary (Case GV1507.B5 P37 1945) December 21 (21/24) #AdventCalendar #HailMary i-share-nby.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01...

NO means... Yum? 🙄 (Tried to spell out a warning against peanut butter truffle center attrition, and yet...) #BuckeyeBanzai?

Wrong Turn at Alquerque? This 15th c. book hides a gameboard for a Middle Eastern game c. 1000! Many books were bound with leather-covered wooden boards, so you could bring these proto-checkers along. 🧵 #NewberryLibrary (Inc. 5029) December 20 (20/24) #AdventCalendar en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alquerque

Stone Age Wages, indeed... Still no complete catalogue or fair wages, so I'm glad to see @christianalgar.bsky.social and his BL colleagues getting some attention... www.standard.co.uk/news/london/...

Reposting this for no reason whatsoever

"Our Souls Need Bird Poop and Old Books!" @lizhebbard.bsky.social invokes @bibliowingate.bsky.social's wonderful recent birdgate posts to introduce Chris Fletcher's fabulous new open access book on Public Humanities in the European Middle Ages! Read it here!: www.arc-humanities.org/978180270096...

Trivial Pursuit? Don't try to best me at this German card game from the 1920s! #NewberryLibrary (Case GV1485 .G394 1920z) It features all my Renaissance rockstar heroes, like Albrecht Dürer... December 19 (19/24) #AdventCalendar

Tag Yourselves! I'm definitely one of Their WICKED CURATORS! 😈

Be Prepared! To play this 1912 Parker Brothers card game... #NewberryLibrary (Case GV1299.B6 P37 1912) December 17 (17/24) #AdventCalendar

I Missed a Day?! This year on Bluesky I wrote 598 posts and 1,174 replies. I received 23,771 likes, with 331 from my most popular post, and apparently I love saying "book," 😁, and 🤔! And #NewberryLibrary. (They're on here now, btw!) www.madebyolof.com/bluesky-wrap...

Renaissance TWISTER! Lucas Cranach II helped a wrestling master to immortal fame in 1539 by showing 85 different ways to subdue his opponent! In a game at the end, one player has to keep his foot in a hole to win... #NewberryLibrary (Wing folio ZP 547 .L96) December 17 (17/24) #AdventCalendar

Ten Teeney-TINY Commandments! This micro calligraphy, handwritten by the limb-deficient artist Matthias Buchinger in 1717, was the first item by him bought by the late, great Ricky Jay. We're so lucky to have it at #NewberryLibrary (VAULT folio Wing MS 381)! December 16 (16/24) #AdventCalendar

Myriopticon! Movable Lithographic Civil War panorama by Milton Bradley & Co., before 1890. December 15 (15/25) #AdventCalendar #NewberryLibrary (VAULT Case E468.7 .M96 1890) i-share-nby.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01...

Going HOME Puzzle On my way back to Chicago, will explain where these #NewberryLibrary pieces are from as soon as I arrive! Any guesses? December 14 (14/24) #AdventCalendar

Thinking of Brown University as I start flying home from Turin. My alma mater and my husband's, my father's physics PhD advisor there saved him from the Vietnam draft, insisting he take another year to finish. A student died tragically in a car accident my freshman year; yesterday was also too much.

POP-UP Pinocchio! This book was treasured by its owner for nearly 90 years before coming to #NewberryLibrary! He played with it so much he had to replace one of this famous Italian toy character's heads! December 13 (13/24) #AdventCalendar #LittleWoodenBoy #AndMeLegsAreSticks #PuppetPulledItOff

GAME OF THE GOOSE! When your goose is cooked, it's REALLY cooked. (Psst, don't land on the geese if you want to live!) 18th c. (?) impression of this famous Italian game.... #NewberryLibrary (Case Wing oversize ZC 1 .638) December 12 (12/24) #AdventCalendar

TURNING HEADS Advent Calendar!

Get your curiosity curation right here!

Is it today yet? Switching to European time is confusing! Here's my German Fortune Telling Book for the Advent Calendar!

Really? No love for the youth?

Today's Prohibitive Gaming Advent Calendar!

Playing Cards for Global Domination? Here's today's Advent Calendar offering!

Today's extra handy, folding map game... #NewberryLibrary (Vault Ruggles 648) #AdventCalendar

Today's Advent Calendar game involves pastels and pointy objects....

The Gentleman Pirate, I presume.

Today's Fun and Games Advent Calendar Entry!

Esmarch bandages with DIY first-aid instruction diagrams printed on them are amazing and little known! I'll feature one made in Chicago in my Printing on Fabric exhibition at #NewberryLibrary (opens Dec. 2026), but they started as wartime aides in late 19th c. Germany, and were printed 2 at a time!

Not sure why this got lost this morning, but enjoy one of my mild hyperfixations, please! With bonus 19th c. stereotypical Indigenous content... Day 4 of my Newberry fun and games Advent Calendar. Will try to thread Day 5 properly... 🙄

What Neil said! 👇

Dang! How is THE satirical paper the only institution properly recognizing creative and journalistic worth? DO BETTER, (checks notes), museums, libraries... And @bencollins.bsky.social lmk if you want to help support a fellowship or three at the Newberry sometime!

Bookish Holiday Fun and Games For... YOU! Now in its sixth year, for this #NewberryLibrary Advent Calendar, we'll play around with the collection! Cards, Board Games, Puzzles, Gambling... What's up first? CHESS! December 1 (1/24) Here's last year's extra-shiny offering: bsky.app/profile/drka...